Chapter 141: Chapter 141: Prophecy (6)

“Actually, when I first saw you, I thought about taking you with me. Your talent seemed decent.”

“R-Really?”

Jofor asked back with a slightly puzzled look after I eagerly explained.

“From watching you observe and approach me, you didn’t seem to lack observational skills, and I could sense your level of ability just by looking at you.”

I maintained a solemn expression. To appear as cool as possible. I didn’t seem awkward.

“What do you say? Want to join?”

Jofor looked a bit flustered. It was an abrupt offer, understandably. It’s important to press on.

I immediately added:

“If you join, you’ll learn the secrets of a world you don’t know about.”

“Secrets of the world?”

“You just saw that thing, so you have some qualifications.”

It was a somewhat childish act, but I judged that it would be convincing enough.

Even the grown-up Jofor liked such things. After all, he was the leader of Falcon’s Talon.

The young Jofor now would be even more so. Earlier, he showed curiosity at the mention of a secret society.

Hmm. To give an analogy, it’s like you’re walking down the street and suddenly a car does a drift stop in front of you, and someone says “Get in!”

“Interested?”

“Um, uhh…!”

“Think about it. But I can’t give you too much time.”

My physical condition didn’t allow much leeway, but I remained calm and gave him a short moment.

Make it really seem like there’s something there, but give him the choice. It’s important to let him choose for himself.

I understood Jofor’s dilemma too. It was a bewildering offer. If someone said this to me…

Wouldn’t I think, what is this madman on about?

But I was confident. He had seen me dealing with Pelia, who had taken the form of a devil.

After some contemplation, Jofor soon nodded.

“I am interested. I saw with my own eyes that…”

“A devil worshipper using the power of the devil.”

“Yes. I saw you kill a devil worshipper, so it can’t be a lie.”

I nodded. At this point, I needed to toss in a little test too.

“But you have to pass a trial.”

“A trial?”

“Secret societies don’t accept just anyone. You have to prove yourself.”

After hesitating, Jofor nodded in understanding.

“Ah, I see. That makes sense. What kind of trial is it?”

“I’ll let you know when the time comes. The situation isn’t good right now.”

“So for now, I’ll just be in reserve?”

“Right. From now on, you’re a prospective member.”

“Yes!”

Jofor nodded vigorously. His solemn face was full of eagerness.

“Oh, but what’s the name of the secret society?”

A name? There wasn’t one.

I had no desire to come up with one either.

“There is no name.”

“Oh, a nameless organization! Nameless? The Nameless Organization? Which sounds cooler?”

“No…”

For a moment, I couldn’t hide my bewilderment.

“Pardon?”

“Never mind. Think of it however you like.”

Well, there was no reason to stop him if that’s what he wanted to call it. For now, it seemed good to let him have that fantasy.

I wasn’t in a state to talk too much right away anyway.

“First, let’s clean up the area and move out. Follow me.”

I started rummaging through Pelia’s body first. It was to recover the magic tool used to find the Devil’s Blood.

There was no need to look for the bald man whose body exploded, and since Pelia had been controlling him, Pelia would have the tool.

No letters or orders were found on Pelia’s body. Only a considerable amount of money and magic tools.

A dark purple, gemstone-like sphere the size of a baseball. I was sure this was the magic tool.

‘Looks like this is how they found it.’

Just in case, I picked it up with a cloth. Since it was used to obtain the Devil’s Blood, there could be strange phenomena.

It wouldn’t be a problem if I was in top condition. But if something happened now, it would be troublesome. But I couldn’t just leave it behind either.

I planned to call Osten to examine it. There could be tracking magic or something placed on it.

“That is…”

“A magic tool those guys use. We should take a closer look.”

Jofor’s eyes shone, seemingly finding this whole process very interesting.

The magic tool did have a rather mystical look to it.

“Now let’s go.”

There was no point in staying any longer. It didn’t seem like anything else would turn up if I kept searching.

“Where to?”

“The city.”

The original first rendezvous point was outside the city. We were supposed to meet the next day in case of any nighttime incidents.

But at this point, after how things turned out, there was no need to go there.

It was safer to go to the city than to move somewhere else right now.

There could be another devil worshipper nearby, but it was unlikely.

If they didn’t come even with all this commotion, then these two were probably the only ones.

It would be better to rest in the city for a day.

‘In my current state, moving recklessly elsewhere could leave traces.’

There was no urgent need to move.

A big city. As the saying goes, the area under the lamp is darkest, so I had to hide in a noisy, crowded place.

It’s an oft-quoted maxim for a reason. The crowd acts as a veil to conceal me.

I had to rely on being ordinary.

Of course, I would have to leave the city soon. There had been an explosion not too far away.

An expert of my caliber might have felt the faint tremor. It was only a matter of time.

‘First, check the scene of the incident and the vicinity, and if there are no traces, investigate inside.’

Resting for a day and then moving would be enough. I headed for the city with Jofor.

I used Winds to check if anyone was nearby, so there were no issues.

After the battle.

Relieved of tension, my body felt as heavy as a water-logged cotton ball, the only discomfort being the pain that pierced through the painkillers.

I secretly entered the lodging of our group with Jofor.

An upscale inn. Osten and Aron, who had been sitting tensely, were startled to see me.

“Brother!”

“Boss! Your appearance… Are you alright?”

Everyone was quite worried.

“Shh. Quiet. Calm down. Don’t call Mary. Get some hemostatic and medicine.”

I had performed purification, but the treatment was insufficient, so it needed to be done again.

“Ah, yes!”

Aron hurriedly rummaged through his bag. Osten alternated between looking at me and Jofor, tilting his head.

“Boss, but who is this person…?”

“A friend who may be joining us.”

While recruiting him was natural, I had told Jofor there would be a test, so I matched my words accordingly.

Osten, who had already experienced Aron and Mary’s joining, nodded his head. Aron had a look of curiosity on his face.

“Members of the organization?”

Jofor, who asked this, seemed slightly disappointed. I thought I knew why.

He had expected a secret society, but the appearance of our group was far from that.

“Why? Disappointed?”

“Huh? Oh, no, not at all.”

Jofor was noticeably flustered. Aron, who brought me a bundle of medicine, frowned.

His reaction was understandably unpleasant. I let out a light laugh.

“This friend will likely be stronger than you, Jofor.”

I could be sure of it. Jofor as a swordsman was not of such a high level. He reached his prime with a spear.

In contrast, Aron already had decent skills. I had personally trained him too.

“Hehe.”

Buoyed by my words, Aron let out a laugh. This time, it was Jofor who countered.

“Surely not. He’s younger than me, isn’t he?”

“Youth doesn’t mean weakness.”

It was Aron’s words. Their eyes clashed in a battle of nerves. I judged it wasn’t a bad thing.

Their competition would give each other the drive to improve. It wasn’t an unhealthy rivalry.

“We’ll see about that later.”

I spoke firmly. Of course, moderation was needed. It couldn’t reach a level that would harm the mission.

“This friend is a magic scholar. A mage who specializes in magic tools. You’ll be amazed when you see it.”

“Ooh…!”

Jofor showed interest. A magic scholar in a secret society. Seems like he was making some associations.

I set the medicine pouch aside and stood up from my seat.

“You all chat.”

“Huh? Where are you going?”

“To wash up.”

The desire to bathe overwhelmed my head. I had gotten rained on and rolled in the dirt too.

“In that state?”

“Yeah.”

With a wave of my hand, I headed for the bathroom. Focusing on cleansing myself using water, Winds, and purification.

I stemmed the bleeding as much as I could with Winds, but the pain was naturally excruciating. But cleanliness came first, so I grit my teeth and endured.

Afterward, I immediately used purification and lay down on the bed. It was the group’s bed, but I had no leeway to care about that.

I felt like I could collapse at any moment.

“Wake me at 7.”

“7? It seems you should rest more…”

Not a wrong statement, but the situation was the situation.

“Can’t be helped. It’s dangerous to stay too long. If I don’t get up, pour water on me to wake me.”

Without waiting for a response, I closed my eyes. The moment I closed them, slumber found me. Drowsiness deepened.

What should I do now?

Tomorrow, I had to leave this city first. With such a major incident, it seemed the destination would have to change.

Where should I go?

The post office?

The thoughts before slumber didn’t proceed normally. I became conscious but couldn’t remember what I had been thinking about.

Come to think of it, I did need to go to the post office. Since Ines had been worried, I should let her know the prophecy had been fulfilled but I survived.

And I also needed to hear about the agreement between the southwest and the islands…

That was my last memory before falling asleep.

***

The early morning after Carlyn fell asleep.

Toun Zaha arrived at the scene where Pelia had died, accompanied by the vice-leader of the Altre Intelligence Unit.

When the combat occurred here, Toun Zaha had been passing through the vicinity. Not too close, though.

However, he had felt a tremor.

It was an extremely faint tremor, nearly drowned out by the sound of rain.

Toun Zaha thought he might have sensed it wrong, but the timing was notable, and it was his mission. He thought it needed to be checked out.

The estimated direction was somewhere between south and west.

Without being able to pinpoint it, the area was wide, but after a considerable amount of time, he was able to find the scene.

“Devil worshippers.”

“Yes, we found them. Different from expected, though.”

The order they had received was to track traces of devil worshippers.

But they hadn’t expected to find their corpses here.

Trees were smashed all over.

A destructive force unlike anything they’d seen before. It looked like a battle between monsters, not between humans.

“What in the world could have happened here?”

“Seems like something the devil worshippers did.”

Traces of darkness lingered on the broken trees. Toun Zaha calmly surveyed the surroundings.

Even amidst the falling rain, the skilled field agent’s eyes caught signs visible on the battlefield.

Footprints, smashed trees, cut grass, swords and mana, traces of darkness passing through.

Toun Zaha realized the battle had dragged on while changing locations.

Following the trail, he found an abandoned longsword and dagger in the grass, reaching the site of the explosion.

And nearby, at the spot where he had hidden a short sword, he found a wet piece of cloth.

‘It’s not an automatically triggered trap.’

From the traces of the battle, they had survived the aftermath of the explosion and continued fighting. The broken trees and peeled bark were proof of that.

After pondering at length, Toun Zaha reached a conclusion.

Carlyn had been here.

He had endured the magic bomb and defeated the devil worshipper using that strange power.

The lack of traces after the battle and the hidden short sword were decisive evidence.

Toun Zaha, who was nearby, also knew about using Winds to erase footprints and blow away the short sword. It made sense if it was Carlyn who had withstood the bomb.

However, there was a lot of spilled blood around. Looking at the corpse, it was Carlyn’s blood. A major injury. He would be nearby.

Toun Zaha scanned the surroundings. Where could he have gone? And he spotted another set of footprints.

Footprints Carlyn had failed to erase – from when Jofor approached.

Had the injured Carlyn been captured? Toun Zaha felt a sense of urgency.

“We must move immediately.”

***

7 AM. Fortunately, I was able to open my eyes without a water dousing. Of course, it was difficult.

Not only was I fatigued, but the pain was worse than yesterday.

Uncharacteristically, I gazed at the ceiling for a moment before barely managing to sit up. Searing pain shot through my entire body.

The pain in my side was so severe that I had to use my hand on the bed to push myself up. Of course, my mind was clearer than yesterday.

I heard Aron and Jofor had slept on the floor. Osten slept on the bed.

In this world, it likely wasn’t due to age but rather a courtesy extended to mages.

I called the group together.

There was an incident where Mary, who hadn’t seen me yesterday, was startled, but that wasn’t important.

“We need to decide on our next destination.”

The original plan was to bypass Haisen and head to Temerza, but this incident occurred here.

Not only did trees break, but a bomb went off. Traces of darkness lingered everywhere.

It was something I couldn’t remove with my purification. I couldn’t eliminate the power of the devil.

If I could, the Sky Whale would have driven out the devils in the distant past.

In any case, Altre has a branch in Haisen and its own intelligence agency.

Those retreating from the north appeared here and caused this incident. It seemed best to leave the south for now.

“If you have a place you want to go, feel free to mention it. Or somewhere you heard interesting news while traveling is fine too.”

The latter part was with Jofor in mind. Not that I planned to simply follow his suggestion.

I would add it to the candidate locations first, and if another good place came to mind, we would move there.

We would depart in the morning, so I was asking just in case there were places I couldn’t recall.

Jofor raised his hand.

“Ah, I heard a rumor that a duke’s manor was robbed.”

Aron and Osten cleared their throats.

That was our doing, after all. I was about to open my mouth to tell the truth.

“I heard the manor of Duke Juan in the southern empire was properly ransacked. They left behind traces of a butterfly pattern?”

Huh? That wasn’t about us?

Wait, a butterfly pattern?

The meaning was obvious. It was surely Ju Rina, known as the Great Thief or Rogue Master.

I know her habits.

She stays for this week at the place she robbed, observing and enjoying the reaction. Duke Juan’s manor wouldn’t be far.

Ju Rina. It wouldn’t be easy, but she’s worth meeting. If we can recruit her, we should. I decided on our next destination.

Author's Thoughts

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